America's Dark Age.

Since America likes to promote itself as the world’s Top Nation, it’s not surprising that news from there is highly visible to the rest of us. Two items particularly caught my eye today.

The first was the strange, and near violent, goings on in the House of Representatives over the election for the Speaker. And when you look at the back story, it appears that most of the mayhem was being caused by ultra right conservatives who pine for the good old days of the Clanton gang and Klan rule. And if you go even further back down the line, you realise that these people were put there by a substantial section of the American electorate.

The second was the revelation that American primary school children are randomly scanned by metal detectors to guard against weapons being brought in. It seems the 6-year-old boy who shot a teacher in Virginia – deliberately according to the local police – missed being caught by the random nature of the scanning.

America, what on earth is happening to your definition of civilisation?

Still, I expect the leaders of Russia, China, and Iran are enjoying themselves. While America is busy painting this picture of itself, they don’t need to waste time devising pejorative propaganda.